UCAR at a Glance

National Center for Atmospheric Research

Office of the NCAR Director

Sponsors recent Ph.D. scientists and students in Ph.D. programs, bringing them to NCAR to expand their own studies and enrich the center's research. ASP also offers seminars, workshops, and colloquia on areas of particular importance to the atmospheric sciences.

Focuses on global- and regional-scale air quality and problems related to the complex interactions among the oceans, ecosystems, and atmosphere. Researchers study the cycles of chemicals in the atmosphere, ways in which the composition of the air evolves, and the impact of human activities on atmospheric chemistry.

Provides observing facilities and instrumentation to the atmospheric and related sciences, including advanced radars, research aircraft, flux measurement systems, and integrated sounding systems. These facilities allow investigators around the globe to gather raw data required for their research programs.

Contributes to better prediction of weather and climate through the development of models that promote understanding of the physical causes of past, present, and future climates and large-scale atmospheric and oceanic dynamics.

Improves understanding of the interactions between the atmosphere, environmental processes, and society, and communicates information related to atmospheric science to a broad community of researchers and decision makers through research and workshops. ESIG staff assess how societies might better understand and cope with severe weather and climate shifts.

Carries out research into the solar interior, the influence of magnetic fields on the structure and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, and the links between the variable solar output and the earth's magnetosphere and outer atmosphere. Because some solar changes influence the earth's space environment and its climate, understanding solar variability is fundamental to understanding and potentially predicting the variability of the earth's atmosphere.

Investigates the basic physical processes that govern the weather: how the atmosphere and the earth receive incoming radiation, scatter and absorb it, and retransmit it; how weather and climate are affected by terrain and the characteristics of soil and vegetation; how severe storm systems develop and die; and how precipitation processes occur.

Contributes to improved aviation safety through research on thunderstorms, icing conditions, snowstorms, wind shear, and turbulence. RAP develops early-warning systems that help save lives and aircraft at U.S. airports and that increase the efficiency and capacity of the nation's air space.

Provides supercomputing resources, scientific visualization tools and facilities, high-speed networks, and associated data processing capabilities on a variety of computing machines. In close collaboration with other NCAR divisions, SCD assists in advancing atmospheric research across a broad front. SCD's data archives included over 135 terabytes as of mid-1998. Its Climate Simulation Laboratory (cosponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program) provides some 14 gigaflops of supercomputing power for NCAR's climate systems model and over 7 gigaflops for university researchers.

UCAR Office of Programs

Operates a collaborative science project between the United States and Taiwan to launch a constellation of eight microsatellites. Upon its deployment, COSMIC will collect atmospheric remote-sensing data for weather prediction, climate, and ionospheric and gravity research.

Improves the weather services of the nation by involving research scientists and academic scholars in the continuing education of weather forecasters and the development of new forecast techniques. The COMET® Program offers courses, symposia, and workshops and produces interactive computer-based learning systems.

Investigates ground-based and satellite-based Global Positioning System (GST) data as a tool for observing the atmosphere. Part of GST, the University NAVSTAR Consortium (UNAVCO), provides technical support and equipment to investigators using measurements to better understand such phenomena as earthquakes and volcanoes.

Increases coherence, as viewed by users, of data services and related efforts across all of UCAR and does so with methods that can be applied outside the organization, especially at universities engaged in producing and managing data. The IITA is a joint UCAR/NCAR/UOP effort.

Provides scientific, technical, and administrative support services to the research community for planning, organizing, and implementing research programs and associated field projects worldwide. Most JOSS services and products fall in three broad categories:
(1) community support, including planning advice, meeting management, program office administration, publications, and visitor programs;
(2) field program support, including program planning and design, site surveys, and field operation logistics and management; and
(3) data management, including system design and the collection, quality control, formatting, and customized delivery of scientific project data.

This program, still under development, is designed to offer educators the tools they need to create interactive, real-world-based curricula. The mission of PAGE is to enhance undergraduate geoscience education through the application of contemporary pedagogies and new educational technologies.

Helps over 135 universities acquire and use atmospheric and other geophysical data for research and teaching, develops computer programs for data manipulation and display, and provides current weather data to universities via the Internet.

University NAVSTAR Consortium (UNAVCO)

Operates programs designed to support and broaden education and research in the atmospheric, oceanic, and related sciences through fellowships to researchers at graduate, postgraduate, and more advanced levels.

Other UCAR Activities

Monitors the activities of the U.S. Congress and keeps the UCAR community informed on budgetary, legislative, and policy developments involving UCAR, NCAR, UOP, NSF, and other agencies of importance to the atmospheric and related sciences. Promotes the growth and well-being of UCAR's programs and activities by supporting a broad range of grant-seeking activities in the public and private sectors, assisting with educational project development, and supporting UCAR-affiliated programs that pursue environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The latter include the Boulder County Healthy Communities Initiative (BCHCI) and Switching Waste to Profits (SWaP), projects of the Walter Orr Roberts Institute.

UCAR Foundation

303-497-8898
President: R.C. Mercure

Acts as UCAR's exclusive agent for commerical endeavors. The nonprofit UCAR Foundation includes officers and a board of directors drawn from UCAR, universities, and the private sector. Revenue flows to the foundation through equity positions, license fees, and royalties on the sales of resulting commercial products. A substantial portion of the revenue generated is returned to UCAR for the advancement of its scientific programs.

UCAR Member Institutions

University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Alaska
University of Arizona
California Institute of Technology
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Colorado State University
University of Colorado
Cornell University
University of Denver
Drexel University
Florida State University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Harvard University
University of Hawaii
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Iowa State University
University of Iowa
Johns Hopkins University
University of Maryland
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
McGill University
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of Missouri
Naval Postgraduate School
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Nevada
University of New Hampshire

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
New York University
State University of New York at Albany
North Carolina State University
Ohio State University
University of Oklahoma
Old Dominion University
Oregon State University
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton University
Purdue University
University of Rhode Island
Rice University
Saint Louis University
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at
the University of California, San Diego
Stanford University
Texas A&M University
University of Texas at Austin
Texas Technological University
University of Toronto
Utah State University
University of Utah
University of Virginia
Washington State University
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
University of Wyoming
Yale University
York University

UCAR Academic Affiliates

Air Force Institute of Technology
University of Charleston
City College of New York
Clark Atlanta University
Jackson State University
University of Kansas
Lyndon State College
Universidad Metropolitana
Millersville University of Pennsylvania
State University of New York at Brockport

University of North Dakota
Northeast Louisiana University
Plymouth State College
Rhodes College
Rutgers University
St. Cloud State University
San Francisco State University
San Jose State University
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
U. S. Naval Academy